Growing up, I would watch Sesame Street every day. Each episode featured a letter or number of
the day. Both of these subjects are
crucial to academic intelligence and life skills. My experience working with
students and families has drawn my attention to the need for another form of
intelligence. As children develop
academic ally, an equally crucial area of development is emotional competence. Many students gain training with math
processes and spelling, yet lack the social and emotional skills necessary for
a fully successful life or education.
A complete education includes cognitive, or thinking processes,
and emotional learning. The division of
left and right brain skills merits the need for balance between thinking and
emotion for a whole self. One student who is a very successful test
taker may struggle with recognizing tension within a friendship. Another student may achieve high grades from
hard work, but crumble under stress or self-demands. Life requires many
emotional skills to hold careers, maintain intimate relationships and to be
fulfilled self-aware individuals.
Academic subjects require emotional intelligence to fully
grasp concepts, contribute to group projects and make meaningful learning
connections. A student reads a story
about children in Haiti. He feels sadness
as he hears about the effects of natural disasters on the children. He is motivated because he can imagine and reciprocate
their feelings in the story. He is able
to relate to the children by feeling empathy due to his ability to identify and
express emotions. He also remembers
details from the story due to his strong emotional connection. Emotions and motivation are greatly
connected. Another student gives up
finishing a math assignment. He does not connect his feelings to the fact that he
does not know how to use division in this problem. He then thinks he is not smart enough to
finish the assignment. He lessens his
frustration by eliminating the source of his anxiety-the assignment. Emotions can create or cloud learning
efforts.
Emotion is a tool for safety, behavioral choices and goal
achievement. We ultimately choose how we
feel in every situation. Every emotion
has a purpose. We can use our emotions
to gather information and then make choices. Emotional competence includes
these basic abilities:
·
Identify
and express emotion: the ability to recognize, label, and appropriately
express emotions in ones’ self or other people.
ex.
I can recognize that I feel angry right now from my teeth being clenched, my
heart racing and my defensive thoughts. I tell you I am feeling angry right
now.
·
Manage
and regulate emotion: the ability to appropriately adjust ones’ emotions to
act or respond in the way we need to achieve a situational social goal.
ex.
I feel very sad that you took my toy away.
I take deep breaths to relax my body and think about why I am sad. I calm my voice and sad thoughts, so I can
tell you how I feel in a way you can understand. I choose how I feel, and I will adjust my sad
response to communicate to you to get my toy back.
·
Respond
to emotional information: the ability to react to emotions one feels or
other people feel in an appropriate manner to achieve goals in social
interactions.
ex.
My sister is scared to go into the pool, but we both want to go swimming
together. I will comfort her by holding
her hand, and using a calm voice as I promise to stay by her in the pool where
we can both stand. We will start by
touching the water with our toes; then work our way in to wading and swimming.
(Mayer) (Shaffer, 120-121)
I Look back to my sesame street days, and want to add an ‘emotion
of the day’. To educate the whole child,
we can integrate academic and emotional learning. Below are some practical ideas for helping
our students improve their education and life skills through enhancing their
emotional intelligence.
Feature an emotion
a day/week: Read a story where a character experiences a certain
emotion. Discuss situations or times
when we might have that particular emotion. Draw a picture of the emotion or someone
feeling that emotion. Listen to music
and look at pictures to practice identifying the emotions we feel from what we
hear or see.
Role-Play:
Role-play daily situations emphasizing emotions we feel, and how our emotions
become actions or behaviors. Practice
ways to react to emotional situations that help us reach our goals, and healthy
relationships.
Emotions charts:
Display an emotions chart with emoticons and labels for emotions. Take turns
throughout the day identifying how each person feels. Create your own emotions
chart. Choose a list of emotions. Take a
picture of your face reflecting the different emotions. Label each picture with the different
emotions. Create 2 columns to write
appropriate and inappropriate ways to react when we feel this emotion. You may
want to choose a color for each emotion also.
Parent
think-a-loud: Important-We do not want to burden, control or scare
children. Instead, plan a head
contemplating what is appropriate to share with children. Choose a time
with the child and appropriately verbally express: What do I feel right now? What
created this reaction for me to feel this way? How my body feels and what
thoughts come to my mind when I feel this?
How are my options to act when I feel this way? What are the consequences from my actions?
ex. I am trying to get the rest
of the ketchup out of the bottle. I feel impatient because I need the ketchup
for my food to taste good, and this is taking a long time. I feel frustrated because I have tried many different
ways without success to get the ketchup out.
My muscles are tightening in my arms, and I am hitting the bottle faster. I can throw the bottle across the room. I can ask for help from another person. I can eat my food without the ketchup. If I throw the bottle, I will make a mess and
possibly hurt someone or something without getting ketchup on my food. If I ask for help, I can take a break from my
hard work and they might be able to help me.
If I stop trying to get the ketchup, then I can eat now but not have the
ketchup.
More examples and materials to start emotion learning
activities will be posted under the ‘activity ideas’ page.
Good Books for learning about emotions:
The Way I Feel by
Janan Cain
Understanding
Myself by Mary Lamia
How Are You Peeling? By
Saxton Freymann & Joost Elffers
How to Take the Grrr
Out of Anger (Laugh and Learn) by Elizabeth Verdick & Marjorie Lisovskis
The Grouchies by
Debbie Wagenback & Steven Mack
A Bad Case Of Stripes by
David Shannon
Knuffle Bunny by Mo
Willems
Article for parents about emotional intelligence-
References:
Mayer, John D. “What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)? The
four Branch Model of Emotional Intelligence”. Emotional Intelligence Information. 5 Aug. 2004. Web. 20 April
2012.
Shaffer, David. Social
and Personality Development. 5th
ed. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.
Print.
